Systems and methods for accessing a shared space in a provider-tenant environment

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses methods and systems for hosting tenants in a computer-based environment in which a provider stores a shared data structure. Each of the tenants may store shared-metadata referencing the shared data structure, while a first tenant may store a tenant-specific data structure specific to the first tenant for access by the first tenant. Based on the shared-metadata and in response to a data request from the first tenant, the system may the query the provider or the first tenant for requested data and provide the requested data based on the querying.

FIELD

The present invention generally relates to the field of data processingin server systems. More particularly, the invention relates to methodsand systems for hosting applications and providing distributed datamanagement for multiple tenants.

BACKGROUND

As the cost to develop and maintain information technology grows overtime, business enterprises increasingly outsource their business processfunctions to third-party providers. For instance, various types ofbusinesses may rely on a provider to host their business applicationsoftware to reduce the cost and inefficiencies of managing informationtechnology systems that are outside the business's traditionalexpertise. Providers of hosting services must, therefore, supportclients having different sizes and needs. Consequently, there is ademand for providers to offer services that are flexible and scalable tosupport the provider's variety of clients.

Conventional approaches for hosting solutions include multi-clientsystems and single-client systems. In a multi-client system, all clientsshare one data management environment, such as all hardware, databases,and application servers. The provider of the business application in amulti-client system thus sets up and administers each client's system.For example, the provider may be responsible for managing theapplication software over its lifecycle. This lifecycle management mayinclude software upgrades, system landscape maintenance, and databasemaintenance. The clients, on the other hand, only need to manage theirown data and business transactions. For example, the client does notneed to set up an operating system landscape, install softwarecomponents, or maintain an overall data management system. Furthermore,the client is not involved in any overall system operations, such ascopying client data for backup or recovery purposes.

One disadvantage of a multi-client system is that because a large numberof clients may share data in a common database, any database maintenancebecomes problematic. For example, the provider must coordinate upgradesto minimize the affect of the database's downtime on each of theclients. In addition, software upgrades may require a very high level oftesting to ensure reliability for all clients. Thus, as the number ofclients increases, the overall upgrade time also increases, which causesthe total downtime to increase for all clients.

Yet another disadvantage of the multi-client system is that deployingcontent to a client requires a great amount of time and manual effort.For instance, the content for all clients is distributed throughout thecommon database. The provider thus cannot simply copy one client'scontent on demand as that client's content must first be sorted from allof the other clients' content in the common database.

Finally, another disadvantage of the multi-client system is that theprovider cannot use currently available database tools to backup andrecover a specific client's content. More specifically, because theprovider organizes each clients' content in one common database, ratherthan a separate physical database, the provider cannot use standarddatabase tools to recover one client's content. The provider must thusrestore the entire client environment and client content through aclient export/import process, which can take several days, and in somecases, several weeks. This inability to quickly backup or recover datagreatly decreases the reliability of client data.

Another solution for hosting multiple clients is the single-clientsystem. In this approach, the provider provides each client with its ownsystem, including, for example, hardware, databases, applicationservers, applications, and data. A primary advantage of thesingle-client approach is that the physical separation of client dataallows a provider to use standard database management tools to execute avariety of important management functions, such as backup and recovery.In addition, the provider may perform management functions on demand foreach client without affecting the other clients.

Because, however, under a single-client system, each client has its owncomplete system, the client is generally responsible for maintaining itsrespective system. For example, a client must decide which softwarecomponents, releases, upgrades, and support packages to install on itssystem. Therefore, in the single-client system, the client is deeplyinvolved in the maintenance and administration of its system.Consequently, a single-client solution often requires tremendous effort,expertise, and investment from the client to maintain the system.

Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a server solution that enables aprovider to host a large number of clients, while enabling separatestorage and management of each client's applications and data.

SUMMARY

Embodiments consistent with the present invention relate to methods andsystems for hosting a plurality of tenants over a network in acomputer-based environment. Consistent with embodiments of the presentinvention, a provider stores, at the provider, a shared data structure;stores, at a first tenant, a tenant-specific data structure specific tothe first tenant for access by the first tenant; stores, at each of theplurality of tenants, shared-metadata referencing the shared datastructure; queries, based on the shared-metadata and in response to adata request from the first tenant, at least one of the provider and thefirst tenant for the requested data; and provides the requested databased on the querying.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth inpart in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious fromthe description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Theobjects and advantages of the invention will be realized and attained bymeans of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in theappended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of theinvention and together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary system environment,consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1B illustrates a logical block diagram of an exemplary systemenvironment, consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary logical block diagram of a provider,consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary diagram illustrating a relationshipbetween a provider space and a tenant space, consistent with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of an embodimentconsistent with the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of an additionalembodiment consistent with the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of exemplary data structures,consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method for hostingapplication software, consistent with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8A illustrates an exemplary system environment for furtherillustrating the generation and use of shared and tenant-specific datastructures, consistent with the present invention;

FIG. 8B-8C illustrate exemplary data structures in a hosting environmentconsistent with the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process for analyzinga data structure according to a data dictionary;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process forgenerating a tenant template consistent with the present invention;

FIG. 11A illustrates a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary processused in generating table links, consistent with the present invention;

FIG. 11B illustrates exemplary table links consistent with the presentinvention;

FIGS. 12A and 12B illustrate an exemplary tenant deployment processconsistent with the present invention;

FIG. 13 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process for executinga query for a shared data structure, consistent with the presentinvention; and

FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary use of a table link, consistent withthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description refers to the accompanying drawings. Whereverpossible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout thedrawings to refer to the same or similar parts. While several exemplaryembodiments and features of the invention are described herein,modifications, adaptations and other implementations are possible,without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Forexample, substitutions, additions or modifications may be made to thecomponents illustrated in the drawings, and the exemplary methodsdescribed herein may be modified by substituting, reordering, or addingsteps to the disclosed methods. Accordingly, the following detaileddescription does not limit the invention. Instead, the proper scope ofthe invention is defined by the appended claims.

Embodiments consistent with the present invention relate to systems andmethods for hosting application software, such as between a provider andmultiple tenants. The term “provider” refers to any device, system, orentity, such as a server, used to host application software. The term“tenant,” on the other hand, refers to any device, system, or entity forusing the hosted application software. As described below, the hostedapplication software may have one or more data structures. The term“data structure” refers to any type of data arrangement for use by asoftware application. For example, data structures may include tables,data fields, memo fields, fixed length fields, variable length fields,records, word processing templates, spreadsheet templates, databaseschema, or indexes. Data structures consistent with the invention arepersistent, existing for each tenant-server session, rather than beingcreated transiently each time a tenant-server session is established.

As described below, systems consistent with the invention may identifydata structures hosted by the provider as either tenant-specific datastructures or shared data structures. Tenant-specific data structures(or tenant-dependant data structures) refer to data structures that maystore content specific to a particular tenant. Shared data structures(or tenant independent data structures) refer to data structures thatmay store data shared between more than one tenant. The provider maythen organize the identified data structures within different spaces.For instance, shared data structures may be associated with a providerspace and tenant-specific data structures may be associated with atenant space associated with a particular tenant. As used herein, theterm “space” generally refers to any type of processing system orprocessing sub-system, such as, for example, a system having a databaseand one or more servers or processors for processing data.

Each tenant may have access to its own tenant-specific data structuresand the shared data structures. More specifically, after organizing thedata structures into the provider and tenant spaces, a first tenantassociated with a first tenant-specific space can then access datacontained in the tenant-specific data structures stored at the firsttenant-space. In addition, the first tenant may also access datacontained in the shared data structures of the provider space. Likewise,a second tenant associated with a second tenant-specific space mayaccess data contained in the tenant-specific data structures storedwithin the second tenant-space, as well as the data of the shared datastructures of the provider space. In other words, each tenant hosted bythe provider may access all data structures necessary to execute thehosted application software by accessing its correspondingtenant-specific data structures and the shared data structures. Further,because each tenant's space is isolated (physically or otherwise) fromthe other tenants' spaces, each tenant's data structures are secure andmay be independently managed without impacting the other tenants.

Systems consistent with the invention may host a variety of applicationsoftware, such as business application software. The hosted applicationsoftware may thus include general-purpose software, such as a wordprocessor, spreadsheet, database, web browser, electronic mail or otherenterprise applications. By way of further example, the hostedapplication software may be the Customer Relationship Management (CRM)or Supply Chain Management (SCM) products offered by, SAP AG ofWalldorf, Germany. Business applications may also be compositeapplications that include components of other software applications,such as those within SAP's xApps family, or may be a custom applicationdeveloped for a particular tenant.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an exemplary system environment 100A,consistent with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, systemenvironment 100A may include a provider 110 that may communicate withtenant stations 130A and 130B via network 140. For instance, provider110 may host business application software and/or other applicationsoftware for use by tenant stations 130A and 130B. To this end, provider110 and tenant stations 130A, 130B may exchange data over network 140 aspart of running or using the hosted application software. While FIG. 1Ashows only two tenant stations 130 for purposes of illustration, systemenvironment 100A may include any number of tenants. Moreover, while FIG.1A shows only one provider 110 and network 140 for communicating withtenant stations 130A and 130B, systems 100A consistent with theinvention may include multiple providers and networks for hostingapplication software to multiple tenants.

As further shown in FIG. 1A, provider 110 may include at least oneprovider server 112 and a plurality of tenant servers 114A, 114B forhosting a respective one of tenant stations 130. As described in moredetail below, servers 112 and 114 may process computer-executableinstructions for administering and maintaining the businessapplications, including the application servers (not shown), databases(not shown), and processors (not shown) upon which the businessapplications rely. As also described in more detail below, environment100A may allow provider 110 to perform administration service tasks suchas maintaining or upgrading system components, updating or replacingsoftware, and backing-up and recovering data.

Tenant stations 130 may be any device, system, or entity using thebusiness application software hosted by provider 110. Tenant stations130 may thus be associated with customers of provider 110 that, forinstance, acquire (i.e., purchase, lease, license) business applicationsoftware from provider 110 and, instead of maintaining the softwareentirely on the tenant's 130 systems, may rely on provider 110 to host,in whole or in part, the business application and its related data orcontent.

As shown in FIG. 1A, each of tenant stations 130A, 130B may include atleast one tenant terminal 132A, 132B enabling users 134A, 134B to accessprovider 110. Tenant terminal 132, for example, may be one or more dataprocessing systems that perform computer executed processes forproviding user 134 an interface to network 140 for accessing data andapplications hosted by provider 110. Tenant terminal 132 may beimplemented as one or more computer systems including, for example, apersonal computer, minicomputer, microprocessor, workstation, mainframeor similar computer platform typically employed in the art. Tenantterminal 132 may have components, including a processor, a random accessmemory (RAM), a program memory (for example, read-only memory (ROM), aflash ROM), a hard drive controller, a video controller, and aninput/output (I/O) controller coupled by a processor (CPU) bus. Inexemplary embodiments, tenant station 130 may include a display and oneor more user input devices that are coupled to tenant terminal 132 via,for example, an I/O bus.

Tenant terminals 132 may execute applications consistent with carryingout the present invention, including network communications and userinterface software. Network communications software may encode data inaccordance with one or more of network communication protocols to enablecommunication between tenant terminals 132 and, at least, acorresponding tenant server 114 over network 140. User interfacesoftware may allow user 134 to display and manipulate data andapplications hosted by provider 110. The user interface can be, forexample, a web-based interface having a web browser or can be a non-webinterface, such as a SAP Graphical User Interface (SAP GUI) capable ofdisplaying trace data stored in eXtensisble Markup Language (XML) formator other standard format for data.

Users 134 may be entities (e.g., an employee or automated process)associated with one of tenant stations 130 that accesses theirrespective tenant's software and data content from provider 110 overnetwork 140.

Network 140 may be one or more communication networks that communicateapplications and/or data between provider 110 and tenant stations 130.Network 140 may thus be any shared, public, private, or peer-to-peernetwork, encompassing any wide or local area network, such as anextranet, an Intranet, the Internet, a Local Area Network (LAN), a WideArea Network (WAN), a public switched telephone network (PSTN), anIntegrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), radio links, a cabletelevision network, a satellite television network, a terrestrialwireless network, or any other form of wired or wireless communicationnetworks. Further, network 140 may be compatible with any type ofcommunications protocol used by the components of system environment100A to exchange data, such as the Ethernet protocol, ATM protocol,Transmission Control/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Hypertext TransferProtocol (HTTP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), Real-timeTransport Protocol (RTP), Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), GlobalSystem for Mobile Communication (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access(CDMA) wireless formats, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), highbandwidth wireless protocols (e.g., EV-DO, WCDMA), or peer-to-peerprotocols. The particular composition and protocol of network 140 is notcritical as long as it allows for communication between provider 110 andtenant stations 130.

As described above and in more detail below, system environment 100A maybe used to host a tenant's business applications. For example, provider110 may host software and data for providing payroll functions for atenant, such as tenant station 130 or tenant space 330. Accordingly, thetenant's employees, such as user 134, may communicate with a respectivetenant server 114 over network 140 using tenant terminal 132 to access apayroll application hosted by provider 110. In this example, user 134may be a payroll officer for the tenant that obtains payroll managementservices from provider 110. These payroll management services mayinclude hosting of payroll processing software tailored to a tenant'sparticular business, as well as hosting of the tenant's payroll data(e.g., employee, transactional and historical data). User 134, forinstance, may access the payroll software (e.g., for submitting ormodifying data content) at provider 110 and/or receive output (e.g.generate reports, issue payments). Furthermore, provider 110 may provideadditional services to tenant station 130 including life-cyclemanagement of the tenant's applications and data content including, forexample, software upgrades, deployment of new software, and data backup.Moreover, provider 110 may assist tenant station 130 in developing andmodifying the payroll application to update the application to meet thetenant's specific needs over time.

FIG. 1B illustrates an exemplary alternative embodiment of systemenvironment 100A shown in FIG. 1A. In particular, system environment100B may include the same elements 110-134 as system environment 100A,but instead of locating tenant servers 114 at provider 110, tenantservers 114 may be located at each tenant station 130 (e.g., tenantserver 114A may be located at tenant station 130A, and tenant server114B at tenant station 130B). Thus, as shown in FIG. 1B, tenant servers114 may reside within each tenant station 130. Accordingly, the tenant'semployees, such as user 134, may communicate with server 114 over, forinstance, a local or wide area network maintained by tenant station 130.Data structures hosted by provider 110 may be accessed by tenant server114 from provider server 112 over network 140.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary diagram of provider 110, consistent with anembodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, provider 110may include provider server 112 in communication with multiple tenantservers, such as tenant servers 114A and 114B. Each tenant server 114may, in turn, communicate over network 140 with a respective one oftenant terminals 132. For instance, tenant server 114A may exchange datawith tenant terminal 132A associated with tenant station 130A.

Provider server 112 and tenant servers 114 may be may be one or moreprocessing devices that execute software modules stored in one or morecomputer memory devices. Servers 112 and 114 may include componentstypically included in a server system, such as a data processor, anetwork interface and data storage device(s) 210 and 220. For example,servers 112 and 114 may include a personal computer, a minicomputer, amicroprocessor, a workstation or similar computer platform typicallyemployed in the art. Furthermore, servers 112 and 114 may execute aplurality of applications including software for managing networkcommunications, providing a user interface, managing databases (e.g.database management system), providing applications over network 140(e.g., application server), and other software engines consistent withhosting multiple tenants over a network. In some exemplary embodiments,provider server 112 may be a platform running SAP's NetWeaver having asuite of development and integration components, such as the NetWeaverWeb Application Server (SAP Web AS), which supports both AdvancedBusiness Application Programming (ABAP) code and Java code meeting theJava 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specifications.

Data storage devices 210 and 220 are associated with provider server 112and tenant servers 114, respectively. These storage devices 210 and 220may be implemented with a variety of components or subsystems including,for example, a magnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive, flash memory,or other devices capable of storing information. Further, although datastorage devices 210 and 220 are shown as part of provider server 112,they may instead be located externally to provider server 112. Forinstance, data storage device 220 may be located within each tenantserver, or it may be configured as network attached storage (NAS) deviceor a storage device attached by a storage area network (SAN). In eithercase, provider 110 may access data storage device 220 remotely overnetwork 140.

Provider server 112, as shown in FIG. 2, may store provider database 212on data storage device 210. Provider database 212 may further have oneor more additional databases that store data structures and/or datamanaged by provider server 112. By way of example, database 212 may bean Oracle™ database, a Sybase™ database, or other relational database.Provider database 212 may include data of provider 110 and tenantstations 130 organized into various data structures 213-216. As will bedescribed in more detail below, and as shown in FIG. 2, data structuresstored in database 212 may include provider data structures 213, shareddata structures 214, tenant-specific data structures 215, datadictionary 216, and shared-metadata 217.

Tenant servers 114 may host users 132 at tenant terminals 132, providingaccess to applications, data and other content associated with arespective tenant server 114. For instance, tenant servers 114A and 114Bmay each store data structures providing a payroll application, whereinthe data structures may store each tenant's specific payroll data (e.g.,employees names and salaries). Further, tenant servers 114 may storeadditional data structures for tailoring the business application foreach respective tenant station 130A and 130B.

Tenant databases 222 may further have one or more databases that storeinformation accessed and/or managed by tenant servers 114. Database 222may be an Oracle™ database, a Sybase™ database, or other relationaldatabase. As shown, databases 220 may store tenant database 222including, tenant-specific data structures 215 and shared metadata 217.

Although servers 112 and 114 are illustrated as being located within asingle provider location, one or more of these servers may be locatedremotely from the others. Alternatively, the functionality of some orall of servers 112 and 114 may be incorporated within a single server.For instance, provider 110 may use a single server having logicalpartitions that isolate data associated with provider 110 and tenantstations 130, rather than the illustrated physical partitions.

Turning now to the data structures 213-217 stored in provider database212, provider data structures 213 may include all provider and tenantdata structures. Provider data structure 213, for instance, may be arepository storing an undifferentiated mix of data structures forhosting applications in a multiple tenant system. In accordance with thepresent invention, and as discussed in greater detail below, providerdata structures 213 may be organized into categories including shareddata structures 214, and tenant-specific data structures 215. In mostinstances, provider data structures 213 in provider database 212 areonly accessible to provider 110 (e.g., the provider's administrators).

Shared data structures 214 may include data and applications that areshared across all tenant station 130 systems. In other words, shareddata structures 214 may contain all information that is not specificallyassociated with a particular tenant, such as tenant station 130A or130B. For instance, shared data structures may contain general purposesoftware applications, generic program objects (e.g., user-interfaces,communication protocols), tables of public information (e.g. tax ratesfor various localities), etc.

Tenant data structures 215 include data and applications that willcontain data specific to tenant stations 130. Continuing with thepayroll example above, a tenant data structures 215 may define a schemafor master data, business configuration data, transactional data and/orapplications for each tenant's payroll process including, for instance,customized user-interfaces, tenant-specific scripts, transactional dataand employee data and payroll data for tenant station's 130A employees.

Data dictionary 216 may be one or more data structures includingmetadata describing the contents of provider database 212. Datadictionary 216 may index shared data structures 214 with other datadescribing provider data structures 213. In addition, data dictionary216 may include data defining an association between provider datastructures 213 and a tenant-specific identifier, thereby identifyingeach such data structure as a tenant data structure 215. Further,metadata within data dictionary 216 may associate provider datastructures 213 with a reference attribute describing a data structure asa tenant-specific data structure and/or a shared data structure. Forinstance, data dictionary 216 may be a local database located inprovider 110. In another exemplary embodiment, data dictionary 216 maybe located within a single schema in provider database 212. In yetanother exemplary embodiment, data dictionary 216 may be an SAP AdvancedBusiness Application Programming (ABAP) data dictionary located inprovider database 212.

Shared-metadata 217 may provide an index of shared data structures 214and tenant-specific data structures 215 along with other data describingthe shared data structures 214. In accordance with some embodiments ofthe present invention, shared-metadata 217 may include informationdescribing the location of data of shared data structure 214 withinprovider database 212 and may be used by provider server 112 and/ortenant servers 114 to locate shared data structures 214. Suchinformation may be, for example, a table resource locator, uniformresource locator, Structured Query Language (SQL) identifier, or otherpointer to a physical or virtual address of shared data structures 214within provider database 212.

Tenant database 222 may contain tenant-specific data structures 224defining parameters of, for example, a tenant-specific environment andtenant-specific application environment (e.g., application server data,tenant master data, tenant transactional data, or initial content usedby the tenant). After tenant data structures 215 are exported fromprovider database 212 to a particular tenant database 224A or 224B, thetenant data structures 215 may thereafter be populated with data contentspecific to the respective tenant; accordingly, such data structures aretenant-specific data structures. For example, as described above,tenant-specific data structures 215A for tenant station 130A may includea payroll administration application and payroll data for the tenant'semployees. Similar information may be stored separately for tenantstation 130B in tenant database 220B. Tenant-specific data 224A and 224Bare thus stored separate from one another in servers 114A and 114B toensure each of tenants' 130A and 130B information remains isolated andsecure.

In systems consistent with the invention, tenant station 130 may notstore shared data structures 214. Instead, tenant station 130 may storeidentifiers, such as table links 225, that reference shared datastructures 214 in provider database 212. For instance, table links 225may include an alternate name for a table (or any other type of datastructure) and/or a logical connection or reference to the datastructure. The logical connection may be, for example, a databaseuniform resource locator, or other pointer to a physical or virtualaddress of shared data structures 214. In some instances, table links225 may be referenced by tenant servers 114 in the same manner as otherdata structures; however, instead of returning data, table links 225 mayredirect the reference to the actual location of the referenced datastructure at provider server 112. For example, it may be necessary for atenant application executed by a tenant server 114 to access shared datastructures 214 through the use of table links 225. Accordingly, tenantserver 114 may access tenant-specific data structures in tenant database222 and shared data structures 214 in provider database 212 in the samemanner and may thus be unaware that shared data 214 is stored outside oftenant database 222. Further, table links 225 may store additionalinformation in association with shared data structures 214 including,for instance, permission data which may enable/disable tenant server 114from writing data to a shared data structure 214. Because table links225 are not included in all embodiments of the present invention, theyare optional and thus illustrated in FIG. 2 with dashed-boxes.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a provider spaceand a tenant space, consistent with an embodiment of the invention. Moreparticularly, FIG. 3 illustrates a logical diagram of information passedbetween components of environment 100. As described above, provider 110may host business application software for tenant station 130 overnetwork 140. To this end, and as shown in FIG. 3, provider 110 mayinclude a provider space 310 and a tenant space 330. Various spaces aredefined according to each space's role within the exemplary overallsystem environment 100 (e.g., provider space, tenant space). In thepresent invention, provider space 310 may include provider server 112and provider database 212, which may further include provider data 213and shared data 214. Tenant space 330 may have all tenant-specific datastructures 215 and table links 225.

As shown in FIG. 3, tenant stations 130 may access the tenant space 330and, in response, receive data from either the tenant-specific datastructures 215 or shared data structures 214. More particularly, tenantserver 114, at the request of tenant station 130, may query tenantdatabase 222. If the query references tenant-specific data structures215, the information is retrieved directly from tenant database 222. Ifthe query references shared data structures 224, the request isredirected by table links 225 and, based on the location data of thetable link 225 associated with the requested data structure, retrievedfrom provider database 212. In other words, table links 225 point tenantservers 114 or tenant database 222 to the shared data structure's 214location in the provider space. A user 134 at tenant terminal 132 oftenant station 130 may, thus, access all data necessary for executing ahosted business application by either accessing tenant-specific datastructure 224 directly via tenant server 114 or by accessing shared data214 via tenant server 114 and table links 225.

In an alternate embodiment, instead of storing table links 225 in tenantdatabase 222, shared-metadata 217 describing the location of shared datastructures 214 may be stored within tenant server 114 itself. In thiscase, when tenant station 130 requests data, tenant server 114determines whether the requested data structure is a tenant-specificdata structure stored in tenant database 222 or a shared data structurestored in provider database 212, based on shared-metadata 217. Inaccordance with the determination, tenant server 114 request mayretrieve the data structure from the appropriate location as identifiedin the shared-metadata 217, and provides the requested data to tenantstation 130.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment consistent with certainaspects of the invention. In accordance with this embodiment, provider110 may include the aforementioned provider space 310 and providerserver 112 As shown, tenant terminal 132 may exchange data with tenantserver 114 over network 140. Tenant terminal 132 may request to executean application or exchange data via tenant server 114. To satisfy therequest, tenant server 114 may need to retrieve tenant-specific datastructures 215 and/or shared data structures 214. For instance, user 134may be the aforementioned payroll officer for tenant station 130. Whenprocessing a payroll report, tenant server 114 may need access to dataassociated with specific employees of tenant station 130A, as well asshared data used by any tenant to run certain aspects or functions ofthe hosted business application software. In this regard, tenant server114 may thus access tenant-specific employee data stored intenant-specific data structures 215 (e.g., data describing eachemployee's salary) and, in addition, access tax data for variouslocalities that, since they are not specific to tenant station 130, arestored in one of shared data structures 214.

Tenant-specific data structures 215 are stored within tenant space 330and, thus, may be accessed directly from the tenant database (not shownin FIG. 4). However, shared data 214 may be stored within provider space310 and, therefore, is retrieved from provider space 310. Accordingly,in accordance with the present embodiment, tenant server 114 may storeshared-metadata 217 informing tenant server 114 of the location of theshared data structures 214 within the provider space 310. Accordingly,tenant server 114 may access the shared data 214 by requesting the datadirectly from provider space 310 based on the shared metadata 217.

FIG. 5 illustrates an additional exemplary embodiment consistent withcertain aspects of the invention. In accordance with this embodiment,tenant server 114 in tenant space 330 may access shared data 214 storedin provider space 310. In contrast to the embodiment shown in FIG. 4,the embodiment of FIG. 5 does not include a tenant sever 114 havingshared-metadata 217 identifying the shared-metadata locations withinprovider database 212. Accordingly, tenant server 114 may not be awarethat a server request may require accessing shared data stored in shareddata structures 214 of provider space 310. Instead, tenant server 114may retrieve both tenant-specific data structures 215 and shared datastructures 214 via the tenant database 222. In this regard, and as shownin FIG. 5, tenant database includes table links 225 that, when accessedby tenant server 114, redirect the server request to the correspondingshared data structure 214 in provider database 112. Tenant-specific data224 may be accessed directly (i.e., referentially) from, for example,the tenant database by tenant server 114, as described above.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram further illustrating the relationship betweenexemplary data structures of provider space 310 and each tenant space330. In particular, FIG. 6 illustrates the division of provider datastructures 213 between shared data structures 214, tenant-specific datastructures 215, and tenant-specific data structures 224A and 224B. Asshown, provider space 310 includes exemplary provider data structures213 (AAA-FFF), shared data structures 214 (BBB, CCC), tenant-specificdata structures 215 (AAA, DDD, EEE, FFF) and an exemplary datadictionary 216. Provider data structures 213 include copies of all datastructures hosted within system environment 100A or 100B. In accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention, exemplary provider datastructures 213 (AAA-FFF) may be exported by provider 110 into subsetshaving shared data structures 214 (BBB, CCC) and tenant data structures215 (AAA, DDD, EEE, FFF). As noted above, provider data structures areaccessible only to provider 110 and, accordingly, shared data structures214 and tenant data structures 215 are typically copies of the providerdata structures 213 stored independently in provider database 212.However, in some instances, shared data structures 214 and tenantstructures 215 may instead be aliases referring to the provider datastructure 213.

As further shown in the exemplary illustration of FIG. 6, tenant datastructures 215 are distributed by provider 110 to tenant spaces 330A and330B. While tenant data structures 215 (e.g., EEE and FFF) are generallyassociated with more than one tenant space 330, some of tenant datastructures 215 (e.g., AAA or DDD) may be associated with only a singletenant. For instance, data structures AAA EEE and FFF, as shown in FIG.6, may associated with tenant-specific data structures 224A in tenantspace 330A and, similarly, data structures DDD, EEE and FFF areassociated with tenant-specific data structures 224B in tenant space330B.

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, tenant spaces330A and 330B may also include table links 225 referring to shared datastructures 214 (BBB, CCC) stored at provider space 310. In particular,FIG. 6 illustrates data structures BBB and CCC may thus be stored onlyas part of shared data structure 214 at provider space 310. Whilestructures BBB and CCC do not therefore reside in tenant spaces 330A or330B, FIG. 6 illustrates that tenant stations 130A and 130B maynonetheless access these data structures from provider space 310 byreference, such as described above with respect to table links 225.

Data dictionary 216 defines attributes of each data structure includedwithin provider data structures 213. That is, when a data structure isadded to provider database 212, an entry for that data structure isadded to data dictionary 216 along with attributes describing that datastructure. For example, an attribute may be associated with a tablename, tenant field, or other identifier. Attributes may also include aunique tenant identifier such as a string “tenant.” The attributesthemselves may be of different types, such as a character type locatedin a column of a table, a boolean type, a date field, a numeric type, orother type. In accordance with certain aspects of the present invention,one or more attributes may particularly define a data structure as beingtenant-specific or shared. Alternatively, one or more attributes may beidentified by provider 110 as being indicative of whether a datastructure is tenant-specific. In either case, based on at least theattributes defined in data dictionary 216, provider 110 may identifydata structures AAA-FFF as being shared data structures 214 ortenant-specific data structures 215. Further, based on the tenantidentification, provider 110 may identify tenant-specific datastructures 215 as being specific to either tenant station 130A or 130B.

As shown for example, data dictionary 216 may associate data structuresAAA-FFF with a tenant identifier (001 or 002) and/or a group (1 or 2).Within provider data structures 213, data structures AAA, DDD, EEE, andFFF belong to group 1 which, in this example, provider 110 identifies ascorrelating with tenant data structures 215. Data structures BBB and CCCbelong to group 2 which provider space 310 correlates to shared datastructures 214. In addition, data dictionary 216 may also identify whichdata structure correlates to a particular tenant station 130A or 130B.Thus, as shown in the example of FIG. 6, data structure AAA correspondsto tenant station 130A by tenant identification 001, while datastructure DDD corresponds to tenant station 130B by tenantidentification 002.

Based on data dictionary 216, provider 110 may thus categorize each ofthe data structures AAA-FFF as part of one of shared data structures 214or tenant data structures 215. In this example provider space 310 maydetermine that data structures BBB and CCC should be classified asshared data 214 because they have no specific association with tenantstations 130A or 130B. Data structures AAA, EEE and FFF are categorizedas specific to tenant station 130A. Data structures DDD, EEE and FFF arecategorized as specific to tenant station 130B.

Based on the above-described identification, provider 110 divides datastructures 213 (AAA-FFF) between provider space 310 and tenants spaces330A and 330B. Accordingly, provider 110 may export data structures AAA,EEE and FFF to the tenant-specific data structure 224A location oftenant space 330A. Similarly, data structures DDD, EEE and FFF, may beexported to tenant-specific data structure 224B location of tenant space330B. In comparison, provider space 310 may associate shared datastructures BBB and CCC, which may be accessed by either tenant stations130A or 130B, or both, as part of shared data structures 214 by providerserver 112 or tenant servers 114.

Furthermore, based on the above division of data structures, providermay generate a data structure including the results of theidentification and/or the location of each data structure withinprovider database 212 and/or tenant databases 222. These references maybe included, at least in part, in table links 225 and/or shared-metadata217, thereby enabling the shared data structures 214 and tenant-specificdata structures 215 to be located within the system. For example, tablelinks 225 are illustrated in FIG. 6 as part of tenant spaces 330A and330B. As denoted by the dashed lines, BBB and CCC in table links 225provide references to BBB and CCC in shared data structure 224.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method, consistent with anembodiment of the invention. The method of FIG. 7 may be used to enablehosting of a business application software and/or other applicationsoftware by using a system environment, such as the system environmentspresented herein. In this regard, the data structures of a businessapplication software are conventionally not categorized as either sharedor tenant specific. Each of the business application's data structuresmay thus be stored together within provider database or server withoutany physical or logical differentiation. As a result, provider 110 mayfirst identify which data structures are either shared data structures214 or tenant-specific data structures 215 (S. 708). As described above,tenant-specific data structures 215 include those having data particularto one of tenant stations 130. In contrast, shared data structures 214are those that contain data common to a plurality of tenant stations130. In one embodiment, the various data structures are identified orclassified by using data structure attributes defined in data dictionary216.

Next, provider 110 may extract shared data structures 214 andtenant-specific data structures 215 from provider data structures 213 inaccordance with the identification step described above. First, shareddata structures 214 are placed in provider server (S. 710). Notably,because shared data structures 214 may already be stored at providerserver, this step may only require placing the shared data structures ina common space of provider server.

In conjunction with extracting the data structures from provider datastructures 213, provider 110 generates reference data defining thelocation of shared data structures 214 and tenant-specific datastructures 215 in the provider database (S. 712). As describedpreviously, shared reference data may be generated as shared-metadataidentifying the location of shared data structures 214 within theprovider database, in accordance with the embodiment illustrated in FIG.4. Alternatively, the shared reference data may be generated as tablelinks 225 referencing the shared data structures 214 within the providerserver in accordance with the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5.

Next, provider 110 stores a copy of tenant-specific data structures 215Aassociated with tenant station 130A at tenant server 114 in tenantdatabase 222 (S. 714). Provider also stores, at tenant server 114A,references to the shared data 214 in tenant space 330A. Morespecifically, in accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 4, provider 110stores shared-metadata 217 at tenant server 114 (S. 716) enabling server114 to directly access shared data 214 from provider 110 on a read-onlybasis. Alternatively, in accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 5,shared-metadata 217 is stored by provider 110 as table links 225 intenant database 222A, enabling tenant server 114A to indirectly accessfrom provider 110.

In the same manner as above, tenant-specific data structures 215B arestored at tenant space 330B (S. 718), and shared data references arealso stored at tenant server 114B (S. 719). As described above, theshared-metadata 217 may be either stored within tenant 114B asshared-metadata, or as table links 225 in tenant database 222B.

Once the tenant-specific data structures 215A and shared data structures214 are identified and stored in their respective servers 112 and 114,and each data structure may be populated with its corresponding sharedand/or tenant-specific data content. Subsequently, when the hostedapplication software is executed, tenant server 114A may receive a dataquery from user 134A at tenant terminal 132A associated with tenantstation 130A (S. 722). Tenant server 114A, based on its physicalseparation from tenant server 114B, may only access tenant-specific datastructures 215A. Thus, if user 134A is associated with tenant station130A, tenant terminal 132 may then access only tenant server 114A. Inother words, user 134A is isolated or prevented from accessingtenant-specific data structures 215 associated with tenant server 114Band, therefore, may not access tenant-specific data 114B of tenantstation 130B.

After receiving user's 134A query at the tenant server 114A,tenant-server 114 accesses tenant-specific data structure 224A stored intenant server 114A, as well as the shared data structures 214 stored inprovider server 112. The shared data structures 214, although not storedat tenant server 114A, may be accessed by tenant server 114A byreferencing the shared-data structure 214. As discussed above, inaccordance with the embodiment of FIG. 4, tenant server 114A mayreference shared-data structure 214 based on shared-metadata 217 storedwithin tenant server 114A. In accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 5,tenant server 114A retrieves shared data structures 214 by referencingtable links 225 stored in tenant database 222A.

Likewise, if provider 110, through tenant server 114B, received arequest for access to tenant-specific data (S. 726), provider 110 wouldenable user 134B to access only the tenant-specific data structures 215Bstored in tenant server 114B and the shared data structures stored inprovider server 112 (S. 728). Thus, provider 110 also isolates user 134Bfrom accessing tenant server 114A and thereby prevents accesstenant-specific data structures 215A. In either embodiment, the divisionof tenant-specific data 224A and shared data 214 between the providerand tenant spaces is transparent to user 134A.

FIG. 8A is a diagram of an exemplary system environment, consistent withaspects of the present invention, for further describing the generationand use of shared and tenant-specific data structures. As shown in FIG.8A, the exemplary system environment may include a provider space 310and at least one tenant space 330. While FIG. 8A illustrates only onetenant space 330 for simplicity, embodiments consistent with theinvention may include multiple tenant spaces that may communicate withprovider space 310 over a network 140 (not shown in FIG. 8A). As shownin FIG. 8A, provider space 310 may include a provider database 212, adata dictionary 216, and a tenant template database 806. While FIG. 8Ashows provider database 212, data dictionary 216, and tenant templatedatabase 806 as physically separate but interconnected storage devices,these storage devices may be included within one storage device (e.g.,partitioned parts of provider database 212).

As shown in FIG. 8A, provider database 212 may further include shareddata structures 214, a template generator 802, an attribute analyzer804, and a tenant template 808, in addition to the other components ofprovider database 212 described above. In one embodiment, tenanttemplate 808 may be a database schema in provider database 212. Further,tenant template database 806 may be stored in a data volume of datastorage device 210. The volume may include a copy of tenant template808, which may further include table links 225 and tenant-specific datastructures 224. The volume may also include other types of data contentand data structures (e.g., tenant application server data) that areincluded in tenant space 330. In one embodiment, tenant templatedatabase 806 may be a database instance. As also shown, tenant space 330may include a tenant server 114, for executing a tenant application, andmay include a tenant database 222 having table links 225, in addition tothe other components of tenant database 222 described above.

Attribute analyzer 804 may analyze provider data structures 213 usingdata dictionary 216, to determine which data structures are independentof the tenant (i.e., shared data structures 214) and which datastructures are dependent upon the tenant (i.e., tenant-specific datastructures 215).

Data dictionary 216 may, therefore, allow for the analysis of providerdata structures 213, which, as described above with respect to FIG. 2,may be included in provider database 212. As also described above withrespect to FIG. 2, data dictionary 216 may include data structures whichdefine attributes of each provider data structure 213. In oneembodiment, these attributes, described in more detail below, may alsobe associated with provider data structures 213 by data dictionary 216,provider space 310, or tenant space 330.

FIGS. 8B and 8C illustrate exemplary attributes that may be defined bydata dictionary 216. As shown in FIG. 8B and as described above, datastructures in data dictionary 216 may include data structures describingprovider data structures 213 by using one or more attributes, such as“attribute 1” to “attribute n” (840, 845, 850, and 855 in FIG. 8B).These attributes may correspond to data fields of a provider datastructure 213. While data dictionary 216 may define numerous data fieldsrelated to provider data structures 213, provider 110 may use onlycertain data fields related to data structures 213 as “attributes.” Theattributes used by provider 110 may be those that are useful fordetermining whether the data structure is a shared data structure 214 ora tenant data structure 215. For example, FIG. 8C illustrates anexemplary embodiment where attribute 840 corresponds to a data fieldcalled “NAME.” This “NAME” attribute may include fixed-length stringsdescribing, e.g., the name of a corresponding provider data structure213. Further, the attributes of data dictionary 216 may include acharacter type, a boolean type, a fixed-length field, a date field, anumeric type, or other type. For example, as shown in FIG. 8C, attribute845 may be a “GROUP” column of a table in data dictionary 216, which maycontain numeric fields (e.g., the group of a table or other datastructure, a delivery class, a development class, a transport object,etc.).

Systems and methods consistent with the invention may encode or programdata structures in data dictionary 216 to include supplemental datafields, as well. For example, data structures in data dictionary 216 mayinclude at least one data field containing a designation 860.Designation 860 may identify whether a corresponding data structure is ashared data structure 214 or a tenant-specific data structure 224. Inone exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 8C, designation 860 may be acolumn in a table called “DESIGNATION” containing a fixed-length string,such as “tenant” or “shared.” If the designation is “tenant,” thendesignation 860 may further identify which of tenant stations 130communicating with provider 110 corresponds to the data structure. Thedesignations may also take different forms or values, such as acharacter value located in a column of a table, a boolean value, avariable-length field, a date field, a numeric value, or other value.The process of determining designations 860 is described in more detailbelow.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process 900 foranalyzing provider data structures 213 using data dictionary 216. Forexample, when hosting a payroll application, a tenant may require accessto tenant-specific data structures 224 containing data about thetenant's employees, and shared data structures 214 containing data abouttypes of tax rates. For example, a tenant may need to access both shareddata structures 214 and tenant-specific structures 224 to calculate anamount of tax to deduct from a particular employee's paycheck. Toimplement exemplary system environments (e.g., environments 100A and100B) consistent with the invention, provider 110 may use process 900 todetermine which of provider data structures 213 to designate as shareddata structures 214 or tenant data structures 215.

Provider 110 need not perform process 900 each time a softwareapplication is executed. Instead, provider 110 may perform process 900when, for example, first deploying a new tenant in system environment100A or 100B. For instance, provider 110 may use process 900 todetermine which data structures associated with a new tenant are to beshared data structures 214 or tenant data structures 215. Further,process 900 may be performed for a single data structure, multiple datastructures, or entire schemas at once.

As shown in FIG. 9, attribute analyzer 804 may access data dictionary216 (S. 910). In one exemplary embodiment, data dictionary 216 may be alocal database located in provider 110, as shown in FIG. 8A. In anotherexemplar embodiment, data dictionary 216 may be located within a singleschema in provider database 212. In yet another exemplary embodiment,data dictionary 216 may be an SAP Advanced Business ApplicationProgramming (ABAP) data dictionary located in provider database 212.

Next, attribute analyzer 804 uses data dictionary 216 to review at leastone attribute (e.g., attribute 840) associated with a first datastructure processed by analyzer 804 (S. 920). Attribute analyzer 804 mayuse attribute 840 to determine if the data structure is a shared datastructure or a tenant-specific data structure (S. 930). For example,turning back to FIG. 8C, in one exemplary embodiment, attribute analyzer804 may determine that a data structure A is associated with attribute845 having a value of group 1. In this exemplary embodiment, becausedata structure A is associated with group 1, attribute analyzer 804 maydetermine that data structure A is independent of any particular tenant.In this example, attribute analyzer 804 may make this determinationbased on another data structure in data dictionary 216 defining whichgroup values of attribute 845 are associated with a tenant-specific datastructure and which are associated with a shared data structure. Whilein this example this determination is based on simply one attribute(e.g., attribute 845), analyzer 804 may make this determination based ona combination of multiple attributes (e.g., attributes 840 and 845).

If attribute analyzer 804 determines that the data structure isindependent of any particular tenant, then the data structure may bestored so that it is accessible by multiple tenants. To this end,attribute analyzer 804 may cause the data structure to be stored inshared data structures 214 (S. 940). In one exemplary embodiment,attribute analyzer 804 may assign at least one additional data field tothe data structure in data dictionary 216 describing the provider datastructure 213 (or to the provider data structure 213 itself) such asdesignation 860, which may designate the data structure as “shared.”Because designation 860 may be assigned to or programmed into theprovider data structure 213 itself, provider 110 may later recognizethat the data structure has already been determined to be independent ofthe tenant or “shared,” and thus simplify or eliminate the aboveanalysis of analyzer 804.

Attribute analyzer 804 may instead determine that the data structure istenant-specific. Accordingly, in one exemplary embodiment, provider 110may store the data structure in a new schema called tenant template 808(S. 950). Tenant template 808 may be a database schema separate fromprovider data structures 213, which may be used to generate tenantdatabase 222, and thus may include tenant-specific data structures 215and table links 225 (described in more detail below). As describedabove, tenant template 808 may be a database schema located in providerdatabase 212. Further, as shown in FIG. 8C and as described above, eachdata structure identified as tenant-specific may also be given adesignation 860 including a fixed-length field containing the string“tenant” or “shared,” a boolean type “true,” a character “0”, or otherappropriate designation. Designations 860 may be stored in a schema inprovider database 212, such as shared-metadata 217. In anotherembodiment, designations 860 may be assigned to provider data structures213 themselves. In yet another embodiment, designations 860 may bestored in data dictionary 216.

Next, process 900 may check to confirm whether all provider datastructures 213 have been analyzed (S. 960). If not, the process may loopback and continue to analyze other data structures of provider datastructures 213.

In one exemplary embodiment, attribute generator 802 may generate a newschema called tenant template 808, based on the results of process 900.FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process 1000 forgenerating tenant template 808. Process 1000 may be used to generatemultiple tenant templates 808. For example, one tenant template 808 maybe generated for each customer shown in FIG. 10.

Generator 802 may access provider data structures 213 which weredetermined to be dependent upon a tenant (S. 1010). In this regard,generator 802 may access the data structures in tenant data structures215 designated as dependent or tenant-specific, as described above withrespect to step 950. In one embodiment, generator 802 may usedesignations 860 to access those data structures that were designated asdependent upon the tenant or tenant-specific. In another embodiment,generator 802 may use designations 860 from data dictionary 216 todetermine which data structures were designated as dependent upon thetenant or tenant-specific.

Generator 802 may then import or copy at least one tenant data structure215 into a new schema called tenant template 808 (S. 1020). Tenanttemplate 808 may be located in its own tablespace, schema, or other datastructure within provider database 212, or may be located in its ownlocal database. When copying tenant data structure 215 into tenanttemplate 808, generator 802 may also copy some of the data content fromtenant data structures 215.

Next, generator 802 may import or copy tenant template 808 into tenanttemplate database 806 (S. 1030). As described above, tenant templatedatabase 806 may also include additional data. Alternatively, in oneembodiment, tenant template 808 may be created in tenant templatedatabase 806 directly. Generator 802 may perform this function by usingdatabase management system tools. Tenant template 808 may be used todeploy, clone, backup, recover, restore, edit, update, and altertenants. In one exemplary embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8A, tenanttemplate database 806 may be included in a local database located inprovider 110.

As described above, multiple tenants may have access to shared datastructures 214. For example, in one exemplary embodiment, a tenantapplication executing on tenant server 114 may need to access data inshared data structures 214. A tenant is not, however, required to storeshared data structures 214. Instead, the tenant may store identifiers,such as table links 225, to reference shared data structures 214included in provider database 212. Therefore, as part of process 1000,generator 802 may create and store table links 225 in tenant template808 (S. 1040). A process for generating table links 225 is described ingreater detail below with respect to FIG. 11.

In one exemplary embodiment, generator 802 may create and store tablelinks 225 in tenant template 808, concurrently with the analysis ofprocess 900. As each data structure designated as independent of thetenant receives its designation 860, for example, generator 802 maycreate and store a table link 225. In another exemplary embodiment,multiple versions of tenant template 808, corresponding to multipletenants, may be created and stored in provider 110. Provider 110 maythen use these tenant templates 808 for various lifecycle managementactions, such as applying patches to or upgrading software, as describedmore below. Further, in one exemplary embodiment, as also describedbelow, a tenant application or tenant server 820 may use table links 225to query, retrieve, view, process, or join data from shared datastructures 214.

FIG. 11A illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process 1100 usedwhen generating table links 225. As described above, generator 802 maygenerate a table link for each shared data structure 214. As shown inFIG. 11, this process may begin by generator 802 first reviewing shareddata structures 214 (S. 1110). Generator 802 may then generate a tablelink 225 (S. 1120) by mapping, for example, a logical connection to anaddress of the shared data structure 214 and an alternative name for thedata structure, such as a table name. A table link 225 may thus includean alternative name for a data structure and a logical connection tothat data structure. The logical connection may be any reference thatwill allow tenant station 130 to access shared data structures 214located in provider database 212. For example, the logical connectionmay be a database universal resource locator associated with the datastructure. An alternative name may be the same name of the shared datastructure 214, or it may be a different name, used to control accesspermissions for only specific tenants or to control access permissionsfor all tenants but for only specific purposes. A tenant may thus usetable link 225 to access shared data structures 214, as described ingreater detail below.

FIG. 11B illustrates an exemplary set of table links 225 and a lookuptable 1150. As shown in FIG. 11A, a set of shared data structures 214may be mapped to table links 225, which include logical connections tothe shared data structures 214 and alternative names for the shared datastructures 214. Lookup table 1150 may include the names of shared datastructures 214 as mapped to the related table links 225. Lookup table1150 may be stored tenant database 222. In one embodiment, lookup table1150 may also be stored at provider database 212.

After generating table links 225, template generator 802 may store tablelinks 225 in tenant template 808 (S. 1130). After generating each tablelink, the process may check to confirm whether all table links have beengenerated (S. 1140). If not, the process may loop back and continue toreview shared data structures 214, generate table links 225, and storethe generated table links 225 in tenant template 808, as discussedabove. In one exemplary embodiment, multiple table links may beassociated with one data structure. For instance, each tenant station130 may include a tenant server 114 that may call or request a shareddata structure by using different parameters, where each set ofdifferent parameters may be associated with a particular table link 225.

The process may also generate and store lookup table 1150 in tenanttemplate 808. Lookup table 1150 may include the names of shared datastructures 214 as mapped to the related table links 225.

As described above, tenant database 222 may include tenant-specific datastructures 224. An exemplary process for exporting tenant-specific datastructures 224 to tenant database 222 is described below with respect toFIGS. 12A and 12B. Because tenant database 222 may store its ownphysical copy of tenant template 808 containing tenant-specific datastructures 224 and table links 225, those table links 225 may beavailable for any query made to tenant database 222. Additionally,because a copy of tenant template 808 may also be stored in providerdatabase 212, those table links 225 may also be available to any querymade from tenant database 222 to provider database 212. Lookup table1150 may also be stored in tenant database 222, and in one embodiment,lookup table 1150 may be stored in provider database 212.

FIG. 12A illustrates an exemplary process for deploying or generating anew tenant. Provider 110 may use this deployment process to generate anew tenant space 330, including a tenant database 222 havingtenant-specific data structures 224. As shown in FIG. 12A, provider 110may generate a new tenant space 330 by copying tenant template database806 and then deploying the copy to new tenant space 330A includingtenant server 114. Tenant template 808 may then be used to createtenant-specific data structures 224 that are populated with dataparticular to the new tenant.

FIG. 12B further illustrates an exemplary process for deploying a newtenant. As shown in FIG. 12B, provider 110 may first select tenanttemplate 808 from tenant template database 806 (S. 1210). The selectionof a template 808 may be made by provider 110 from a plurality oftemplates. The particular template may be selected to provide the newtenant with a processing environment suited to the tenant's particularhosting requirements. For instance, a tenant that is a medium-sizedbusiness may require a less complex environment for a hosted businessprocess than a tenant that is a large business. Accordingly, a differenttenant template 808 may be selected by provider 110 for the creation ofthe medium-sized tenant, such as a template 808 corresponding to datastructures associated with a less complex version of the hostedapplication software.

After the selection of template 808, provider 110 may create a copy ofthe tenant template database 806 containing the selected template 808for deployment to tenant space 330 (S. 1220). The copy may be generatedby one of several methods. In one method, a copy of tenant templatedatabase 806 may be created using, for example, database commands (e.g.,“copy” or “restore backup”). In a second method, tenant templatedatabase 806 may be created by copying one or more data volumes thatinclude tenant template database 806, as well as data structures,applications and other contents that are included in new tenant space330. In this case, a copy may be generated by making a physical copy ofthe data volume containing the selected template, such as by performinga snapshot operation on the selected volume. In a third method, a newtenant space 330 may be created by exporting the tenant template 808 ina new tenant database 222 and later installing the data and applicationsthat are included in the tenant space 330.

Once the copy of tenant template database 806 is created, the copy andits contents (e.g., the template's folder structure) may be associatedwith a unique identifier assigned to the new tenant by provider 110(e.g., a system ID) (S. 1230). The unique identifier enables theprovider to associate content and data with tenant-specific datastructures 224. Further, the identifier may be used later by theprovider to individually address and manage each tenant space 330.Although provider 110 may later change the names or identifiers of datastructures within the copy of tenant template 808 to reflect theidentifier assigned to the tenant, provider 110 would not later changethe content of these data structures in exemplary embodiments. Afterrenaming the copied tenant template, provider 110 may deploy the renamedtenant template 808 at tenant space 330 (S. 1240). As part of thisdeployment, the tenant template 808 may be exported to the new tenant,and file names, user names and other profile parameters may be changedin accordance with the new tenant's name or identifier. Once deployed,the data structures 224 may be populated with initial data and othercontent as defined by the tenant template 808 and/or supplied by thetenant. For instance, in accordance with the aforementioned payrollexample, some tenant-specific data structures 224 may be populated withthe tenant's payroll data such as current employee information,historical data and other content associated with the tenant's businessprocess.

Next, the newly deployed tenant space 330 may begin execution of thehosted business process at tenant server 114, at which time the identityof the new tenant space 330 is registered with provider 110 (S. 1250).In particular, a user 134 may execute a business application hosted byprovider 110 through a user-interface provided at tenant terminal 132.In accordance with the disclosed invention, if user 134 submits a queryto tenant server 114 for data specific to the tenant, such data may beretrieved from the tenant-specific data structures 224 stored withintenant space 330. However, if the query submitted by user 134 requiresdata common to more than one tenant, the data may be retrieved byredirecting the query to retrieve data from shared data structures 214stored at the provider space 310. Access to shared data structures 214in provider database 212 may be limited by provider server 212 basedupon whether a tenant's unique access identifier received from tenantspace 320 is registered with provider 110.

As described above, tenant template 808 may also include table links225. Therefore, when provider 110 deploys a new tenant, tenant database222 may also get a copy of table links 225 used to access shared datastructures 214. As described below, tenant server 114 may execute aquery for a data structure by using table links 225.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary process for querying a database for adata structure by using a table link 225. As described above, tenantserver 114 may need to access shared data structures 214 stored inprovider database 212. However, in an embodiment consistent with FIG. 5,when tenant server 114 may receive a data request, it may transmit aquery to tenant database 222 for the requested data including a datastructure name. In other words, tenant server 114 may query tenantdatabase 222 (S. 1310) in response to a received data request. The queryto tenant database 222 may include a SQL statement requesting data, suchas, for example, a tax rate for a particular employee of the tenant. Forexample, turning to FIG. 14, if tax table 1400 is named “T” and employeetable 1402 is named “E”, the SQL statement “SELECT T.TAXRATE FROM E, TTAXRATE WHERE E.EMPNO=T.EMPID and EMPNO=1007” may request Peter Smith'sincome tax rate from table 1400. Generating such SQL statements is wellknown in the art and is, therefore, not described in further detailhere.

After receiving the query from tenant server 114, tenant database 222may recognize that the requested data (for example, the requested taxrate from table tax table 1400 called “T”) is not available to bequeried at tenant database 222. In such a case, tenant database 222 mayfirst use the requested data structure name to examine lookup table1150. Tenant database 222 may use lookup table 1150 to determine whichtable link 225 is related to the requested data structure name, as shownin FIG. 11B (S. 1315).

Based on lookup table 1150, tenant database 222 may transmit anotherquery to provider database 212 (S. 1320). The query to provider database212 may use table link 225 to retrieve data from the shared datastructure requested by tenant server 114. In one embodiment, the queryto provider database 212 may include only the logical connection fromtable link 225. In another embodiment, the query to provider database212 may include only the name of the shared data structure requested bytenant server 114. In yet another embodiment, the query may includetable link 225 (which, as described above and as shown in FIG. 11B, mayinclude an alternative name for the data structure containing therequested data, as well as a logical connection to that data structure).

Provider database 212 receives the query and determines which shareddata structure 214 is requested (S. 1330). Provider database 212 maythen send any data contained in the requested shared data structure 214to, for example, tenant database 222 (S. 1340). Tenant server 114 maythen retrieve the requested data from tenant database 222 (not shown).Once the data is available at tenant database 222, tenant station 130may perform any desired actions or operations by using the requesteddata.

To further illustrate the use of table links 225, in one exemplaryembodiment, table link 225 may be used to access and view a tax rate fora particular employee, as shown in FIG. 14. To calculate pay slips foremployees of a tenant, a payroll software application may requestcurrent tax rates and payroll data for the tenant's company. In thisexemplary embodiment, the tax rates may be stored in shared datastructures 214 within provider database 212, because the tax rates arecommon to all tenants and accessible to all tenants. Therefore, taxtable 1400 may be stored in the schema containing shared data structures214 in provider database 212. As a result, all tenant stations 130 mayaccess tax table 1400. Employee table 1402, however, may be stored intenant database 222, because each company has different employees. Alltenant stations 130 may thus not have access to employee table 1402. Byway of example, employee table 1402 may include data such as anemployee's identification number, last name, first name, and annualsalary.

In this example, generator 802 may generate table link 1404 having analternative name “TAX” for the shared data structure 1400, and a logicalconnection to the shared data structure 1400. The logical connection maybe any type of valid connection, such as a database universal resourcelocator to tax table 1400. After creating table link 1404, table link1404 may be stored at tenant database 222.

After table link 1404 is stored at tenant database 222, the payrollapplication may execute a query for the tax type or tax rate for aparticular employee in the company. The payroll application running ontenant server 114 may be unaware that the requested data structure islocated at provider database 212. Therefore, the payroll application'squery may simply include a reference to tax table 1400. Tenant database222 receives the query, and resolves that tax table 1400 is not locatedat tenant database 222. In one example, tenant database 222 checks thequery against lookup table 1150 table and resolves that tax table 1400relates to a table link 1404. Therefore, tenant database 222 sendsanother query to provider database 212, including table link 1404, inorder to retrieve data from tax table 1400.

After receiving the query, provider database 212 determines that taxtable 1400 is the requested shared data structure 214, and that taxtable 1400 therefore contains the data requested by the payrollapplication. After provider database 212 determines that tax table 1400contains the requested data, the requested data from tax table 1400 maybe sent to tenant database 222. Once the data is available to thepayroll application at tenant database 222, a tenant may perform anydesired actions or operations by using the requested data.

For purposes of explanation only, certain aspects and embodiments aredescribed herein with reference to the components illustrated in FIGS.1-14. The functionality of the illustrated components may overlap,however, and may be present in a fewer or greater number of elements andmodules. Further, all or part of the functionality of the illustratedelements may co-exist or be distributed among several geographicallydispersed locations. Moreover, embodiments, features, aspects andprinciples of the present invention may be implemented in variousenvironments and are not limited to the illustrated environments.

Further, the sequences of events described in FIGS. 1-14 are exemplaryand not intended to be limiting. Thus, other method steps may be used,and even with the methods depicted in FIGS. 1-14, the particular orderof events may vary without departing from the scope of the presentinvention. Moreover, certain steps may not be present and additionalsteps may be implemented in FIGS. 1-14. Also, the processes describedherein are not inherently related to any particular apparatus and may beimplemented by any suitable combination of components.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

1. A method for hosting, at a provider, a plurality of tenants over anetwork, comprising: storing, at the provider, a shared data structure;storing, at a first tenant of the plurality of tenants, atenant-specific data structure specific to the first tenant for accessby the first tenant; storing, at each of the plurality of tenants,shared-metadata referencing the shared data structure; querying, basedon the shared-metadata and in response to a data request from the firsttenant, at least one of the provider and the first tenant for therequested data; and providing the requested data based on the querying.2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing shared-metadata furtherincludes: storing, at the first tenant, shared-metadata defining anattribute of at least one of the shared data structure and thetenant-specific data structure.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: querying, based on the attribute, the provider and the firsttenant for the requested data.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: storing, at a second tenant of the plurality of tenants, atenant-specific data structure specific to the second tenant for accessby the second tenant; storing, at the provider, the tenant-specific datastructure specific to the first tenant and the tenant-specific datastructure specific to the second tenant; and wherein storing theshared-metadata further includes generating the shared-metadata based onthe data structures stored at the provider.
 5. The method of claim 2,wherein querying further comprises: querying the provider if theattribute indicates the requested data structure is a shared datastructure; and querying the first tenant if the attribute indicates therequested data is a tenant-specific data structure.
 6. The method ofclaim 2, wherein querying further comprises: querying the provider ifthe attribute indicates the requested data structure is a stored at theprovider; and querying the first tenant if the attribute indicates therequested data is stored at the first tenant.
 7. The method of claim 2,wherein the attribute indicates whether a particular data structure isshared by the plurality of tenants or specific to the first tenant. 8.The method of claim 1, further comprising: updating, by the provider,the shared-metadata based on data structure changes at the provider. 9.The method of claim 1, further comprising: enabling the first tenant tohave read-only access to the shared data structure.
 10. A system,comprising a provider, a network, and a plurality of tenant servers,wherein the provider comprises: means for storing, at the provider, ashared data structure; means for storing, at a first tenant of theplurality of tenants, a tenant-specific data structure specific to thefirst tenant for access by the first tenant; means for storing, at eachof the plurality of tenants, shared-metadata referencing the shared datastructure; means for querying, based on the shared-metadata and inresponse to a data request from the first tenant, at least one of theprovider and the first tenant for the requested data; and means forproviding the requested data based on the querying.
 11. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the provider further comprises: means for storing, atthe first tenant, shared-metadata defining an attribute of at least oneof the shared data structure and the tenant-specific data structure. 12.The system of claim 11, wherein the provider further comprises: meansfor querying, based on the attribute, the provider and the first tenantfor the requested data.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the providerfurther comprises: means for storing, at a second tenant of theplurality of tenants, a tenant-specific data structure specific to thesecond tenant for access by the second tenant; means for storing, at theprovider, the tenant-specific data structure specific to the firsttenant and the tenant-specific data structure specific to the secondtenant; and wherein the provider further comprises means for storing theshared-metadata by generating the shared-metadata based on the datastructures stored at the provider.
 14. The system of claim 11, whereinthe provider further comprises: means for querying the provider if theattribute indicates the requested data structure is a shared datastructure; and means for querying the first tenant if the attributeindicates the requested data is a tenant-specific data structure. 15.The system of claim 11, wherein the provider further comprises: meansfor querying the provider if the attribute indicates the requested datastructure is a stored at the provider; and means for querying the firsttenant if the attribute indicates the requested data is stored at thefirst tenant.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the attributeindicates whether a particular data structure is shared by the pluralityof tenants or specific to the first tenant.
 17. The system of claim 10,wherein the provider further comprises: means for updating, by theprovider, the shared-metadata based on data structure changes at theprovider.
 18. The system of claim 10, wherein the provider furthercomprises: means for enabling the first tenant to have read-only accessto the shared data structure.
 19. The system of claim 10, wherein theprovider further comprises: means for enabling a tenant to access the atleast one shared data structure and means for forbidding the tenant fromwriting data to the provider.
 20. A method for hosting, at a provider, aplurality of tenants over a network, comprising: storing, at theprovider, a shared data structure; storing, at each of the plurality oftenants, shared-metadata referencing the shared data structure;querying, in response to a data request from one of the plurality oftenants, the provider for the stored shared data based on theshared-metadata; and providing the requested data based on the querying.